RANT: Dell+Windows+corrupt registry=12 hours and counting

[plinden]

I can't wait till my new Mac arrives - sure, I know it may have problems, but I'm really pissed off with my Dell. Ok, it has lasted me four years, and when it's running, it's fast enough for most standard things plus CivIII and SimCity.

But it's been giving us trouble over the past 6 months or so, so I decided to reinstall Windows ... I'm now on the third reinstall since Sunday (each install takes about 30-35 minutes, but then I have the Windows updates to install, which takes another 2-3 hours). Each time, it ended up with a different problem - the first time, it ended up in a cycle of booting, something failing, rebooting, continuously. Last time, explorer (not MSIE, rather the shell program) wouldn't load, so there was no access at all, even in safe mode. And using a pre-SP1 windows repair disk doesn't work if you've upgraded to SP2 - you end up with a corrupted system.

I may be doing this on my own time, but $60x12hours = $720.

A sign of madness is doing the same thing over and over expecting the result to be different - so I must be mad but my wife needs the computer. Still, when my iMac arrives (it left Subic Bay in the Phillipines yesterday), I'll have a way out of this madness.

 

[iSaint]

I can't wait till my new Mac arrives - sure, I know it may have problems, but I'm really pissed off with my Dell. Ok, it has lasted me four years, and when it's running, it's fast enough for most standard things plus CivIII and SimCity.

But it's been giving us trouble over the past 6 months or so, so I decided to reinstall Windows ... I'm now on the third reinstall since Sunday (each install takes about 30-35 minutes, but then I have the Windows updates to install, which takes another 2-3 hours). Each time, it ended up with a different problem - the first time, it ended up in a cycle of booting, something failing, rebooting, continuously. Last time, explorer (not MSIE, rather the shell program) wouldn't load, so there was no access at all, even in safe mode. And using a pre-SP1 windows repair disk doesn't work if you've upgraded to SP2 - you end up with a corrupted system.

I may be doing this on my own time, but $60x12hours = $720.

A sign of madness is doing the same thing over and over expecting the result to be different - so I must be mad but my wife needs the computer. Still, when my iMac arrives (it left Subic Bay in the Phillipines yesterday), I'll have a way out of this madness.

All I can say is "...been there done that."

After a year or so with a Mac, you, too, will lose sympathy for people in your current state.

 

[jhu]

hardware problem? i haven't had any problems with my windows 2000 machine (which spends 99% of the time in linux...)

 

[yg17]

(which spends 99% of the time in linux...)

Well, that's why

 

[plinden]

Well, the third install had the same problem as the second - it apparently worked fine, but on rebooting, explorer fails to start so I'm left looking at a blank screen.

I went and installed Debian Linux on it, and I've been playing around with it for the past three hours without any problems.

 

[thewhitehart]

Father Jack's method works best. Get loaded on whiskey and smash it!!